Elitist

Posted on January 30, 2009
Filed Under Clubs And Organizations, Service Dog Laws, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

yesterday i went to the dog park and met the regional guide dog coordinator for the seattle area. it was nice getting to talk with her about service dogs and how they are raised. she brought her guide dog puppy drop out to the dog park for some socialization and running around. apparently she doesnt like the guide dog organization forbidding them to bring their puppies to the dog park either. i ended our talk by handing her my card and maybe she will contact me. in all honesty i wont hold my breath though. most people who have service dogs from the big organizations dont think that dogs that were not trained by their organizations can be service dogs. personally i think this is a somewhat of an elitist philosophy but i can understand why they might have this view. i cant tell you how many times ive been into a store and had my dog aggressed at by an unmarked “service dog”. there is part of me that wished there was an official national organization that certified service dogs by access and task testing and proof of medical documentation. even though i took advantage of the loop hole in the law that allowed me to train jasper as my service dog, i think it would be beneficial for all legitimate service dog teams to be guaranteed safe access to public environments. it only takes one bite from an aggressive dog to ruin a service dogs career, the life of the person who uses it and years of training.

To Puppy Park Or Not?

Posted on January 25, 2009
Filed Under Clubs And Organizations, Mistakes | Leave a Comment

we went to the dog park today and something kind of frightening happened. liame almost got attacked a couple of times by three different dogs. once while we were walking towards the water, once while we were at the water and once as we were walking back towards the car. we have never had a day like this before. it was like every dog in that place was out to get my little boy. guide dogs for the blind doenst allow their puppies to go to dog parks. i think its because they can get attacked and can be scarred for the rest of their life. i have been pretty lucky in that liame has never been bit at the dog park. i specifically did not take him to the dog park while he was still a little pup because every single time another dog got rough with him in his puppy classes it was always a dog that had been to a dog park or a dog daycare and had been in an altercation with another dog. todays incidents are making me rethink my decision to go to the dog park with liame. maybe i should take the advice of the guide dog organizations and keep liame away from uncontrolled doggie interactions.

Leave It, No, Leave It, Watch, Leave It Liame! Liammmmme!!!

Posted on January 21, 2009
Filed Under Class, Major Steps, Mistakes, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

we have started switching to walking around on a flat collar. since one of the classes i have been assisting in had only a few dogs in in amanda has allowed me to train liame while the other dogs are training. this has given me the opportunity to work on not pulling on the leash and ignoring food on the ground. basically we spend our entire hour walking around food, waiting for him to look up and me and then giving him a treat from my pouch. im trying to get him to make the connection that if you want food then look at me rather than going after it like a madman while its on the floor of the supermarket. do you know how embarrassing it is to have a dog repeatedly try to eat a single piece of food off of the floor in a grocery market while you are going “leave it, no, leave it, watch, leave it liame! liammmmme” oh so embarrassing!

Back To The Surgeon

Posted on January 19, 2009
Filed Under Care, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

we went back to the surgeon today. apparently liames elbows are still swollen. he is still having difficultly getting up from a lying position but once he takes those first couple of steps he bolts around the house like there is nothing wrong. i told him about us going to magnuson and him going out into the water and how he wont go out past his chest. he said that i would have to wait until the summer and have him follow me out since he doesnt even want to follow other dogs out. ive noticed that when he gets up from a lying down position i can hear his joints pop. the surgeon seemed to dismiss it but its got me a little worried. he joints didnt pop until after the surgery. i cant pinpoint where in the front portion of his body the popping is coming from. i hope this doesnt mean more surgery and the the possibility of dropping him from the program. i have had fun raising him and would feel really bad about having to train another dog.

I Cannot Fail

Posted on January 15, 2009
Filed Under Care, Major Steps, Things That Make Me Smile, Todays Mood | 1 Comment

so i had my second day of assisting classes yesterday. i live for these dog training classes, especially the older dog classes. puppies are cute and all but i want to train service dogs - a more complicated a mature doggie client. they have completely different needs than puppies. thank goodness i volunteered for these classes before i got laid off. at least now christine and amanda know that i just didnt want to help them with classes because i had nothing else better to do.

both jasper and liame seem to be adjusting to the new routine. i however, am not. i now understand how a home based business can take over ones life. i am so motivated and driven at this point that im doing nothing for myself. i think ive watch maybe 10 hours of tv since the 5th - a pretty amazing feat for someone who used to spend most of her waking moments catching up on tv programs. im looking at being laid off as an opportunity to start my own business, become my own boss and help people at the same time - something i have been wanting to to for literally years. i cannot fail. i will not fail. and hopefully i can control this obsessive compulsive tendency of mine and in the process of not failing, not get burnt out either.

Managing Without The Training, Pay And Authority

Posted on January 9, 2009
Filed Under Mistakes, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

i knew once they started bothering me about my attendance and instituted their “tracking” system it wouldnt be long. i did a job, a job none of the other retouchers wanted to do. i got hired on to do retouch work and ended up managing the entire job from start to finish. i was the reason why we made our deadlines and the customer never really complained. i was in and out of my seat being a detective, doing the dirty work, tracking down and resolving problems before the customer even knew that they existed. because i volunteered to do a job that needed to be done and that no one else wanted to do because they were “real retouchers” , i wasnt in my seat for my entire 8 hour shift and couldnt be easily “tracked” on a spreadsheet. the sad thing is that if had bothered to look they would have found me within 100 feet of them, doing my freaking job. i was the reason everyone elses work ran smoothly and they were in their seats. today i found out that my tasks got assigned to an upper level manager. turns out that i was doing the job of a manager without the training, pay or authority to make real decisions. its making me mad just typing this.

Sayonara

Posted on January 5, 2009
Filed Under Firsts, Major Steps, Mitigating Symptoms, Things That Make Me Want To Cry, Todays Mood | Leave a Comment

i got to work today all excited to tell everyone that i had my fist vacation in years where i didnt spend at least half of it sick. instead i come in, settle down and got the long walk to HR. yup, i got laid off today. as you can gather from my previous posts its not like i didnt see it coming. i tried desperately to turn todays negative into a positive and went home, changed into service dog academy clothing and went to the dog park. the high it gave me worked for a couple of hours. ive been up for a while now and i think the reality of the situation is finally hitting me.

“Service Dog In The Building!”

Posted on January 3, 2009
Filed Under Firsts, Mistakes, Service Dog Laws, Tips and Tricks | 1 Comment

we went to the seattle aquarium a couple of days ago. right before we were about to enter the aquarium the front desk clerk made what i would have assumed was a general staff announcement that there was a “service dog in the building.” i didnt understand it at first and thought it a little insulting but then it occurred to me that even though liame had been introduced to all types of environments that the penguins, otters and octopus might be a little taken aback by the fact that there was this furry predator staring them down. sure enough when we came to the octopus tank, the octopus started squirming around in him tank and tried to hide behind a rock. according to the attendant the octopus had barely moved all day. when we came up to another tank which happened to be really long and at liames level, he spotted a fish swimming really fast in it and tried to chase it down the wall. telling him to “leave it” worked but it bugs me that i have to be so reactive all the time. i wonder if his age is causing this impulsiveness or maybe its because he is the product of champion hunters? when i picked out liame i knew i needed a dog that would be an active participant in my life, a dog with a lot of energy and drive to encourage me to get out of the house. guide dogs have such passive personalities that they seem to be more like an assistive device rather than a living breathing animal. i know they select their breeding stock so that they turn out that way. sometimes though liames constant on the go, inquisitive personality makes me wonder, did i screw up and get a dog with too much drive?

Management, Management, Management

Posted on January 1, 2009
Filed Under Mistakes, Tips and Tricks | Leave a Comment

oh labs. oh labs. oh labs and their desire to eat everything while they are puppies. the special of the day yesterday included large clumps of my hair. typically it takes me a couple of weeks to schedule a hair cut at the school that i go to but yesterday they had a cancellation and i got in within a hour of calling. this of course meant that i was totally unprepared for the situation that unfolded. now that i have had time to think about it, i think my mistake was placing liame into a down stay to the side of me. normally when i go to get my hair cut he sits directly in front of me so that i can keep and eye on him. sitting directly in front of me allows me to see him and prevents too much hair from falling into his personal space. on this occasion he was to the side of me so i ended up not being able to keep an eye on him because the stylist wanted me to face forward. when she finally did start cutting my hair wads of it ended up right in front of his little curious puppy nose. i told him several times to leave it with no avail. it was too much for him to handle. about half way through the haircut another stylist came over, cooed at him, watched him eat hair, laughed at him ignoring my “leave it”s and then offered to clean it up before he decided to get up and move around to the other side of the chair. how gross and embarrassing. normally i would have been prepared in the situation with a yummy rawhide or meat stick to try and get his attention away from the hair but alas, since the appointment was made last minute i didnt have any of these puppy management tools. so next time i go get a haircut i need to either place him in the front of the chair or provide him something other than my hair to entertain him.